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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0358.012 2004-2006 (BAYS 18th Floor - Alii Place LEAVER 1099 Alakea street Honolulu, Hawaii 9861"s LUNG ~ , :i~ 1i ~ P.O. Box 1780 ROSE Honolulu, Hawaii 96806 Telephone: (808) 523-9000 BABA Facsimile; (808) 533184 FACSIMILE TRANSMITTAL SATE: August 15, 2005 BDLRB 0621-058 MATTER NO.: ~O: Hawaii County Council FAX NO.: 808-961-8912 FROM: Bruce D. Voss, Esq, on behalf of SENDING 5 PAGE(S) Kohala Coast Resort Association (INCLUDING TRANSMITTAL) RE: Testimony - Aus~ust 15 2005 8:30 a.m. Regarding Communication 358, Bill 121; Resolution 134-05; Communication 359-Bill 122; Communication 387 Bill 132 3~EMARKS/DESCRIPTION OF DOCUMENT(S) TRANSMITTED: !'lease distribute to council members. Thank you. s, y ~ do not receive all the pages or if they are illegible, please call HOLLY at (608) 523-9000. We are sending {rom an automatic facsimile machine, which is available to receive on a 24 hour per day basis. ?Original/copy will be mailed to you. Cd Original/copy will not be mailed to you. CONFIDENTIALITY. The information contained in this fax message ~s intended only for the personal and confidential use of the designated recipient(s) named above. This message may be an attorney-client communication and, as such, is privileged and confidential. If the r Bader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, the reader is hereby notified that you have received this documents in error, and that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly p,~hibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone and return the original message and copies to us by mail m a sealed envelope. Thank you for your assistance. o Comm. No. ~ ~ o ~ I Z Ref. To:Presed~ -1 •d 78It-EES-808 tii9Nfl~ 2131vFi3Q S.ldH WdLL~Zi S8. 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BAB~~ ~ 11 , 'r~rncvs ac Gae August 16, 2005 Via facsimile - (808) 961-8912 & E-mail counciltestimony(a),co.hawaii.hi.us TO: Hawaii County Council 25 Aupuni Street, Room 215 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 FROM: Kohala Coast Resort Association RE: Testimony Regarding Communication 358, Bi11 121; Resolution 134-05; Communication 359-Bill 122; Communication 387 $ill 132 August 16.2005 - 8:30 a.m. Aloha to the Members of the Hawaii County Council, The Council has on its agenda today, Tuesday, August 16, 2005, a number of items that address the management of solid waste on the island of Hawaii, particularly in East Hawaii. Among these items are funding for an East Hawaii sort station, tractors, trailers, loaders, and planning dollars for a waste reduction technology project. The Kohala Coast Resort Association (KCRA) is a private, non-profit organization, founded in 1984, for the purpose of maintaining a standazd of quality development for the Kohala Coast. The Kohala Coast resorts offer more than 4,300 hotel and condominium units, comprises more than 40 percent of the hotel rooms and condos available on the Island of Hawaii and directly employs more than 6,000 people -about 10 percent of the island's non-agricultural workforce. s z'd rstt-ess-eee t~~tJm a3nd3a s~,da wdei:ti se, s1 one Hawaii County Council August 1 2005 Page 2 KCRA has been involved with the solid waste issue on the Island of Hawaii since its inception. It opposed the placement of the Pu'uanahulu Landfill and is on record as being adamantly opposed to any long haul trucking of trash from East Hawaii to the Pu'uanahulu Landfill in West Hawaii. As the County Council considers its options and makes its decisions regarding the right and proper way to address solid waste issues -which will affect West Hawaii as well as East Hawaii - KCRA reiterates its opposition to the trucking of trash from East Hawaii to West Hawaii and its reasons for opposition: 1. Traffic and Safety_ Concerns-The County previously has claimed traffic impact from trash hauling will be "minimal" because there will be "only" 17 waste truck round trips a day from Hilo to South Kohala. The County is not realistically assessing the impact on residents: these are huge, 20-ton trucks, With their weight and size, they will have difficulty with the curves and grades of the Hawaii Belt Road and Waikoloa Road, and will hasten the deterioration of those roads. The trucks will slow traffic for all other drivers, including residents commuting from East Hawaii to West Hawaii. Traffic is already heavily congested through Waimea. town, and these trucks will only add to the delays. These huge trucks will pass nearby schools in both Waimea and Waikoloa, and create dangers for schoolchildren and other residents. Any traffic accident with these trucks would have terrible consequences. And, no matter how they are designed or maintained, these unsightly trucks will occasionally spill waste and debris onto the roadway. 2. Economic, Social and Cultural Impacts-Throughout this controversy, the County has continually disregarded the economic and social impacts of having the island's only landfill right next to the island's primary resort area. The Kohala Coast resorts create thousands of jobs for island families, and help provide the tax revenues to fund many of our County's services. The County must not jeopardize the long-term economic health of our tourism industry. More importantly, the County's plan is disrespectful to all of West Hawaii residents. Our native Hawaiian culture teaches us that we must respect our land and our environment, and clean up after ourselves to protect the land for future generations. $ut the County's apparent solution, at least in the short term, is to take all of East s e~d tetb-yes-aea i~~Nn~ a3nd3a shda wdet:ii se, si end Hawaii County Council August 15, 2005 Page 3 Hawaii's waste-including the sludge from its sewage treatment plant-and truck it through West Hawaii's towns to dump it in West Hawaii's backyard. The County's "solution" is culturally inappropriate and antithetical to everything use try to teach our children, 3. Increased Dust, Noise, and Odor/Water and Soil Quality- Under the County's previously proposed plan, more than 70,000 additional tons of waste would be dumped each year into the West Hawaii Landfill. The County has never studied whether such an increase in the amount and frequency of dumping would increase dust, noise, odor, or other emissions from the West Hawaii Landfill, or how that might affect the nearby resorts or residents. The County also has never studied whether dumping and compacting waste in quantities far larger than originally projected could have any short-term or long-term impacts nn soil or water quality around the West Hawaii Landfill. Even after KCRA and numerous other citizens objected to the County's Environmental Impact Statement for the trash hauling project, the County still has failed and/or refused to conduct those necessary studies. 4. Reducing the Life of West Hawaii Landfill-When the County proposed the existing West Hawaii Landfill, it told residents it was building the landfill for the benefit of West I~awaii. The County now is breaking its promise to West Hawaii's residents. The County's EIS claimed that dumping all of East Hawaii's trash on the other side of the island would reduce the life of the West Hawaii Landfill by only 12 years, but in fact it could be full much sooner if the island's population or business activity grows more rapidly than projected. The County's apparently assumes that once the West Hawaii Landfill is full the County can just build another landfill somewhere else in "drier" West Hawaii, and forever make West Hawaii the island's dumping ground. 5. Failure to Studv Other Alternatives-KCRA understands that the East Hawaii Landfill is now expected to reach capacity by March 2006, but the County has not yet submitted a proper plan, design, and request to the State Department of Health to extend the life of the landfill. Yet again, this is a "crisis" of the County's own making. To date, the County still has not sufficiently studied and designed options to extend the life of the Hilo landfill, whether by re- ~s-c~~ b8rr-DES-a0e t=~Nm a~nd3a s,~da wdei:iT se, si end Hawaii County Council August 15, 2005 Page 4 compacting, re-grading, or by laterally expanding the landf Il into the nearby quarry. The County has never properly studied whether another, drier site south of Hilo and Volcano might be more suitable for an East Hawaii landfill. The County has never studied whether other interim measures, such as shipping East Hawaii's excess trash to Mainland landfills, might be cost effective and make more sense than endangering the lives and livelihoods of West Hawaii's residents. In commenting on the Environmental Impact Statement for the East Hawaii Sort Station in question, KCRA stated: " KCRA reiterates that it fully supports the County of Hawaii's efforts to reduce the island's waste stream, including recyclins and the sort station concept But KCRA cannot support a massive and costly waste-ttucking_proposal that endan erg s tihe health, safety, and well-being of all West Hawaii residents." KCRA stands by that statement and respectfully and strongly urges the County of Hawaii to devote its full efforts and resources to extending the life of the East Hawaii Landfill and pursuing waste reduction technology to ensure that the trucking of waste frozn East Hawaii to West Hawaii will never occur. KCRA also strongly urges County representatives to communicate better with West Hawaii's citizens regarding the status of the East Hawaii Landfill and what exactly the County is doing to avoid hauling East Hawaii's waste to West Hawaii. Sincerely, Bruce D. Voss Counsel for Kohala Coast Resort Association cc: The Honorable Hazry Kim, Mayor, County of Hawaii Barbara Bell, Director Hawaii Department of Environmental Management 25 Aupuni Street, Room 208 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 s-s ostr-yes-eee i~~Nm a3nd3a s,~da wd6ti : iT se, st end